At 4 on a Friday afternoon, a group of about 10 barefoot people, composed of students, staff and family, is seated on a patterned rug that has been laid on the main stage of the Slosberg Music Center. Most hold Indian instruments. With us are Shubha Mudgal, Aneesh Pradhan, Sudhir Nayak and Murad Ali, who will teach us to improvise in their Hindustani style.Judith Eissenberg (MUS), director of MusicUnitesUS and second violinist of the Lydian Quartet, introduces the session as "a really wonderful, intimate opportunity for whoever comes to share in whatever ways we can with people who I hope someday will consider me friends, and possibly you, too." The awkwardness of our introductions quickly fades as Shubha Mudgal opens her mouth to sing us a raga on which to improvise. Her voice is as smooth as cream and as redolent as cardamom. We play with the tune and rhythms, each of the Indian musicians giving the Brandeis students tips. Nipun Marwaha '12 receives singing advice from Mudgal (which he later describes as "actually amazing"), while violinist-turned-tabla player Shiv Mundkur '11 shows me how to rest my violin on my knee so that I can better carry out the slides and unusually placed trills of the unfamiliar style.

The improvisational session is also an opportunity to hear about the role of music in the lives of Brandeis students and staff, from Mohammed Kundas '10, who plays instruments like the Arabic oud in his multiethnic band Mochila, to Sheila Donio, an intern with the Coexistance program. She claims that she "is not a musician," but nevertheless cradles her guitar while describing how she uses instruments, bodies and buildings in Playback Theatre as a form of expression.

Tabla player Aneesh Pradhan begins a game in which we must accurately clap and wave our hands to a rhythm while simultaneously carrying on conversations with each other; it's a fun mental challenge and a way to interact comfortably with one another. And in the most cohesive and beautiful part of the entire evening, Pradhan asks Kundas to introduce one of his Arabic-influenced tunes so that the Indian musicians can play in a style unfamiliar to them. We go around the circle, each person briefly improvising to "Arabic Coffee" on his or her instrument. It is a true moment of the cross-cultural connection to which Brandeis programs so often aspire.